1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to protective lenses, and more particularly to protective lenses with a flexible gasket assembly that have a wide field of view and high safety factor.
2. Description of Related Art
Masks and goggles are widely used in many fields such as water activities, biking, snow sports and any other activities that require eye protection.
Conventional eye protection devices comprise a lens frame and lenses. The lenses are mounted in the main frame. The conventional lenses may be a one-piece lens or two lenses. The one-piece lens and the two lenses are made of essentially flat optical material such as glass or plastic. When a person wears the eye protection device, the essentially flat lens and the lens frame limit the person's field of view so that the person's peripheral vision is virtually completely obstructed.
To overcome this problem, an eye protection device with a wide field of view was developed. A conventional eye protection device with a wide field of view comprises a main frame, a main lens, two peripheral lenses and two lens connectors. The main lens and the peripheral lenses are mounted in the main frame. The lens connectors are relatively narrow and are mounted between the main lens and peripheral lenses to connect the peripheral lenses to the main lens at an angle to unmask a person's peripheral vision.
When a person wears the eye protection device with a wide field of view, the person can see through the main lens and the peripheral lenses. Furthermore, the lens connectors between the main lens and the peripheral lenses are thin line obstructions to the person's vision.
The lens connectors can also make the main frame, the lens and the peripheral lenses waterproof, but the lens connectors cannot allow the main frame, the main lens and the peripheral lenses to change shapes or be adjusted. When a force acts on the eye protection device with a wide field view, the main lens and the peripheral lenses are easily broken. To keep the lenses from breaking, the lens frame has to be strong and large, which makes the lens frame heavy and inconvenient to use.
All lenses need to be cut to a specific size before the eye protection devices are assembled. However, every lens cannot be cut precisely enough to make every lens exactly the same. Because the lens connectors are only mounted between the main lens and the peripheral lenses, the lens connectors cannot be adjusted or compensate for imprecision in the lenses after cutting. Furthermore, imprecision in the cutting of lenses will result in variations in assembly of the eye protection devices. If the lenses sizes are larger than the precise size, the connector will break away between the main lens and the peripheral lens when a force is applied to the lenses. If the lenses are smaller than the precise size, leaks will develop between the lenses and the lens frame when a force is applied to the lenses. After cutting, edges of the lenses are sharp and easily injury a person or cause the lenses to break.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides protective lenses with a flexible gasket assembly to obviate or mitigate the aforementioned problems.